Star sailor G Sathiyan won both of his singles, including world No. 9 Dang Qiu, to write India’s stunning 3-1 win over second-placed Germany in the group stage of the World Table Tennis Championships on Sunday. World No. 37 Sathiyan won two grueling deciders, first against 36th-ranked Duda Benedikt (11-13, 4-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9) before defeating Germany’s highest-ranked player, Qiu (10-12). , 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9).
In both matches, Sathiyan faced strong backlash after losing the first two matches.
“The match against Qiu was definitely much more difficult. He is a top 10 player. It was also a high quality game,” Sathiyan told PTI.
India No. 2 Harmeet Desai had lost the second singles to Qui 1-2 (7-11, 9-11, 13-11, 3-11) before Manav Thakkar helped his team 2-1 with a 3-1 (13 – 11, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10) beat higher seeded Ricardo Walther.
17th-ranked India had beaten Uzbekistan in their opening match on Saturday. They must finish in the top two to advance to the pre-quarter finals.
In the women’s draw, India recorded their first group stage win with a 3-0 result over the Czech Republic.
The Manika Batra-led team had lost to Germany on Saturday.
Manika defeated Hana Matelova 3-1 (11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 12-10) in the first singles before Akula Sreeja and Diya Chitale beat Marketa Sevcikova and Katerina Tomanovska, 3-0 and 3 – 1 respectively.
It was a close affair between Diya and Katerina before the Indian triumphed 11-13, 15-13, 12-10, 14-12. Two game points behind in the fourth game, Diya relied on her serve to make it 10-10 before winning a spectacular rally.
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Katerina made it 12-12 before the India got the few points she needed to take a nice win.
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